Dawn asked M.L. Rio:

Hi! Thank you so much for writing my favourite book. I'm also very glad that you put so much emphasis on ambiguity and allowing readers to make their own interpretations; to me this encapsulates the whole beauty of literature and I'm very glad it's so open-ended. ANYWAY, I was wondering how different your first draft was from the final product? Did the plot change much, or did it follow the same outline throughout?

M.L. Rio I do start with fairly thorough outlines, and because this story is so heavily informed by Shakespeare's tragic structure, that was especially true here. That said, I like to stay flexible--art can't be bullied into being, and sometime you have to go where the muse leads you. As for differences between first and final drafts, there are far too many for me to list or even remember, but the original draft was considerably longer, so much of the revision involved trimming the fat until we had something a little more manageable. The plot didn't change dramatically, but in myriad small and subtle ways--difficult to remember eight or nine years later. Thanks for reading--I'm glad to hear it's resonated so strongly with you.

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